Happy Camper Quilt or Quilted Tablecloth

I recently “inherited” this tablecloth from my Great Aunt. It’s a simple tablecloth with ric rac trim that she would put out during BBQ’s at their home and on Picnics. Everyone in attendance would sign and she would later embroider each signature. Such a great idea! It inspired me to make my own version into a quilt. Don’t ya love it! It’s SUPER SIMPLE and will be so fun to have our friends and family sign it when we get together for our Camping Trips.
The Ingredients are simple and so are the Instructions, so let’s go!

1 Jelly Roll 2 Yards of fabric for the front
3 yards of fabric for the back
Jelly Roll Strips and Nine Patch pieces left over are used for the binding
Batting

1. Make 40-42 Nine Patch blocks

Making Nine Patch blocks is easy peasy.
a. Cut your Jelly Roll Strips in half.
b. You will need 2 strips of one fabric and 1 strip of a coordinating fabric for each set.
c. Sew strips together as shown below:
d. Cut sewn strips 2 1/2″ wide as shown in photo below:
e. You’ll end up with something like this:
f. Sew 2 1/2″ wide pieces together as shown in photo below:
g. Tah Dah! A Nine Patch block. You’ll need 40-42 blocks. 2. Sew 2 strips of 11 or 12 -Nine Patch blocks each.
3. Sew 2 strips of 9 – Nine Patch blocks each.

Sew long strip(s) to long sides of front piece first.
Then sew shorter strip(s) to ends of front piece, matching Nine Patch blocks at ends.
(see photo):Depending on your seams, and the actual length and width of your front piece, will depend whether you use 11 or 12 blocks on each long end. You’ll have to measure and do a little math.

Put top, batting and backing together and quilt as desired {I did a big grid first (to leave room for signing names) and then extra quilting on the borders}.

Use your left over strips and Nine Patch pieces and sew together end to end to create a binding. I usually do a 2 1/4″ binding. But I just left the pieced binding at 2 1/2″ and it turned out rather nicely.

Bind as desired and you’re all done! Enjoy!

1 Quilt or Quilted Tablecloth! Your Choice. Finished size is approx. 54″ x 84″

Happy Camping from Jodi at Pleasant Home!

Twisty-Twirly Girly Skirt

Feb28

Twisty-twirly girly skirt

by Sheri Howard

If you need a Spring or Easter skirt for your little darling, here is an easy, fast way to have one of your very own.

1 Honey Bun– I used Happy Campers by American Jane.

I was so excited I unrolled it before I took a picture with it’s cute tag!

1/2 yard coordinating fabric for waist band and skirt band.

3/4″ elastic

1- cute model –my neighbor!

Rick-rack to go around skirt bottom if desired.

All seams are 1/4″ unless otherwise stated.

MEASURING
1.) Measure the length from the waist to the middle of the knee cap of your luck little lady. This will be the length of the honey bun strips for the skirt body. For example: 10″

2.) Measure the waist of your lucky lady. You will need this measurement to know how many strips for the skirt body. Your skirt body needs to be 4 times the waist measurement. for example: waist measurement 20″ Skirt body will be 80″

3.) Determine how many strips you can get from a length of honey bun based on 42″ strips. For example: waist to knee length 10″ you can get 4 lengths per strip. This math is not too hard because the finished size of the strips are 1″ So, I need 20 full strips from the honey bun that will be cut to 10″

Good luck trying to choose just 20!

You don’t have to use just 20, mix and match any of the strips.

SEWING

1.) Sew the 42″ length of the honey bun strips into groups of 2. Press seams all one way.

2.) Cut into length measuring the waist to knee. For example: 10″ Don’t panic yet because you will still add some length with the waistband and skirt band.

3.) Sew the groups of 2 into groups of 4.

4.) Sew groups of 4 into groups of 8 then 16 etc. until you have the needed strips. For example: 80 strips. Press seams all one way. Sew ends together to form a circle.

WAIST BAND

1.) Cut 1- waist band 6″ x waist size plus 8″ For example: (6″ x 20″ + 8″) = 6″ x 28″waistband.

2.) Sew together end to end to make a circle using a 1/4″ seam.

3. Press under 1/4″ from top.

4.) Measure and turn down 1″ for elastic casing.
5.) Sew around waist band and make sure to leave an opening for elastic. Don’t insert elastic until skirt is finished.

ADDING WAIST BAND

1.) Gather skirt onto waist band using about a 1/2″- 5/8″ seam.

2.) Top stitch along gathered seam to help gathers lay flat.

BOTTOM SKIRT BAND

1.) Cut 1- bottom band 4″ x width of skirt body plus 1/2″ for seam. For example :

(4″x 80″ + 1/2″) = 4″ x 80 1/2″ bottom skirt band.

2.) Sew together end to end to make a circle using a 1/4″ seam. Press seam open.

3.) Press bottom skirt band wrong sides together length of band.

4.) Sew to bottom of skirt body. I like to zig-zag or overlock the band and skirt to eliminate strings after washing.

5.) Press band toward band and top stitch to help keep strips laying flat.

ELASTIC

1.) Measure waist and cut elastic that measurement. Thread through waistband casing over lapping 1/2″ on ends. Sew casing closed. Try it on your lucky little lady!

RICK-RACK OPTION

Add medium rick-rack over the top stitching along the bottom band. So Cute!

Itty Bitty Poochie Bag

Oct16

Trick-or-Treat, smell my sheets (sheets of Moda Layer cakes!). Itty bitty little versions of my Poochie Bag pattern. Fast and fun little bags to hold Halloween treats, sweets and goodies. Or maybe office goodies, thread, sewing notions, embroidery floss, seed packets, stickie note packages, etc.

Using fabric ribbon for the handles, these little puppies sew up speedy fast. Well, faster then the regular sized Poochie Bags. Faster then knitting a bag this size. Way faster then cooking dinner.

– 3) Layer Cake slices (10″ x 10″) – Happy Campers by American Jane featured.
– Assorted ⅜” wide fabric ribbon

CUTTING:
1. From green print Layer Cake slice; Cut in half for 2) 5″ x 10″ pieces for bag/liner.
2. From brown print Layer Cake; Cut 2) 2½” x 8″ for pockets. Save and set aside remainder – use for pocket on second bag.
3. From fabric ribbon; Cut 2) 15″ strips for handles.

ASSEMBLY:
4. Fold all pieces length to length. Press. Unfold green print and lay flat.
5. Position folded brown print on center of green print so raw edges meet.

6. Center a 15″ piece of fabric ribbon at 1⅛” from each side on top of pocket. Pin.

7. Edge-stitch ribbon down by starting at the raw edge, edge-stitching up to the fold on the green print fabric, across the ribbon’s width, then back down to the raw edge. Repeat on ribbon’s other end/side of pocket. Make two units.

8. Place units right sides together. Pin. Starting at green pin on the non-pocket end (this end will become the bag’s liner), sew around unit with a ¼” seam, stopping at the red pin – leaving a 3″ opening for turning. Use a back-stitch to lock ends.

9. Snip off the corners just above the seam to reduce bulk. Repeat on all corners.

10. Turn bag inside out. Pin open edges closed.

11. Close turning opening by top-stitching it’s edge closed.

12. Tuck liner portion of green print inside bag, and voila… Itty Bitty Poochie Bag is ready to be filled.

Three sheets of a layer cake yield two Itty Bitty Poochie Bags.
Sew and tell… Join and add your Itty Bitty Poochie Bag photo to the Moda Bakeshop flickr pool and the Poochie Bag flickr pool.

Happy H’ween!

Monica

The Happy Campground

Sep2

Make this quick easy table runner and coordinating cozy lampshade in a weekend! It’s just that easy.

Happy Camper Honey Bun, Charm Pack, 1/3 yard red pindot for star points, 1/3 yard red plaid for binding, 1/2 yard backing fabric, lampshade

rick rack, ribbon, lace or any other interesting trim for lampshade

Select 6 charm squares for star bodies. Selecting coordinating star points and bodies lets your stars stand out in this runner. Select 18 charm squares for remainder of runner, setting aside 4 of those for corners.

Cut (26) 2 3/4 inch squares from red pindot

Draw a line diagonally through red pindot squares.

Stitch a red square on opposite corners of each star body, stitching on pencil line

Stitch a red square on one corner of the remaining squares EXCLUDING the four corners.

Press squares towards corners on all blocks. Cut away excess triangles if desired. I cut away the inner portion.

Using the finished runner as a guideline, layout blocks. Stitch blocks into rows pressing in alternate directions. Layer and quilt as desired. Bind with 2 1/4 inch binding strips. Sit back and enjoy your fast and easy table runner.

One quick and easy Happy Camper table runner. (14 x 36.5)

With gathering foot set as 6, gather a variety of honey bun strips 1/4 inch from top of strip. The number of strips needed will depend on the size of your lampshade. This medium sized shade took 16 strips. Set aside your favorite strip for the very top. I used one color for each layer. Lay out your strips and decide how you’d like your lampshade to look.

Begin at the bottom of the shade. Using a hot glue gun or fast drying craft glue, run a small bead of glue at the binding line of the shade. Line up the stitch line on the strip with the binding line in the glue. This will keep your outside edge nice and even. (Note: I like things that line up and appear nice and even, you might like it more whimsical. My instructions are a guideline.) Follow along edge of shade.

On a medium sized shade one strip will only cover about half the circumference of the lower half of the shade. I glued the end of the first strip to the edge, then folded over 1/4 inch of the incoming strip and glued it over the first strip for a nice transition.

At the end, trim off excess, fold end of strip under 1/4 inch and glue in place over first strip. It is more important the bottoms of the strips match than the tops.

For the remaining rows, apply glue to gathering stitch line on strip, about 1 1/2 inch or so at a time. Line up so that the bottom of the new strip just covers the stitch line of the previous row. Begin and end rows in the same manner as instructed above.

The last row is attached by running the glue bead around the binding at the top of the lampshade and adhering the last strip so the top is even with the top of the lampshade. A strip of trim can be used to hide stitching if so desired.